to Rnother," etc. We shRll use these words to illustrate genuine religion, and three things are noteworthy- I. "THE ESSEN0E OF GENUINE RELIGION. " They that feared the Lord." The men. who feRr G0<1 may be divided into two classes. 1. Those who fear him with a slavish fear. The unrenewed millions when they think of him at all dread him; their guilty consciences invest him with attributes of such horror that they shudder at the idea of him, they flee from bis presenoe. " I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid." All that is supen:titious in the world, all that is harbario in the religion of Christendom, Bpring from this dl'l'M of God. 2. Those who fear him with a filial fear. The fear which II loving child has for a worthy and noble sire. There is, perhaps, always a kind of fear in connection with true love. We fear, not that the object will harm us, but that we may harm or displease the object. Our fear is that we shall not please the object up to the measure ot' our intense desire. The fear of genuine religion is not the fear of suffering, hut the fear of sin, not for the consequences of wrong, but for the fact of wrong. This filial fear with all is the beginning of wisdom. II. THE SOCIALITY OF GENUINE RELIGION, "Spake often one to another." We are social beings, and what interests us most has the chief power in bringing us together. Nothing interests a religious man so much as religion. Hence the few good people living in this corrupt age of Malachi met and "spake often one to another." Spake, no doubt, in language of mutual instruction, mutual comfort, mutual exhortation. There is no force in the world so socializing as religion; it brings souls together, and centres them in a common object of love, in a common current of sympathy, in a common course of life. UL THE WORTH OF GEZ..'1JINE RELIGION. See what God does with the genuinely reliitiuus. 1. He specially attends to them. " The Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a. book of remembrance was written before him for them." "This does not, of course, mean literally that God keeps a book. or that he has any difli.culty in remembering what takes place. It is an anthropomorphism, a symbolizing of the special interest of God. 2. He claims them as his own. "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts." Mv friends, my children, mine to love and serve me. 3, He appreciates them as pnciowi. "In that day when I make up my jewels." The word here rendered "jewels" is in Exodus (ili. 5) rendered" peculiar treasure." "They are peculiarly precious to me." He knows the worth of their existence, the cost of their restoration, the greatness of their capabilities. 4. He distinguishes them from all others. Here they are so mixed with worldly and worthless ~n that they are mostly undiscerned and undis- tinguished. One day he will separate them, the sheep from the goats. CoNoLUBION. To attain religion should be the snpreme aim of our life. It is not a. means to an end ; it is the grand end of being ; it is the Paradise of soul-D. T.
EXPOSITION.
OHAPTER IV. same metaphor is used by John the Ba.ptiat (Matt. iii 10; comp. Amoe ii. 9). The Vers. 1-S.--§ 4. The final, separation of Hebrew text includes this chapter in oh. iii. the eml and the good at tlie day of judgment. Ver. 2.-The Bun of Bighteo11Sneas. The sun which is righteousness, in whose wings, Ver. 1.-llurn as an oven (a furnace). that is, rays, are healing and salvation. This Fire is often spoken of in counection with Divine righteousness shall beam upon them the day of judgment and the advent of the that fear the Name of God, flooding them Judge. It is a eymbol of the holiness of with joy and light, healing all wounds, re- God, which consumes all impurity, and also moving all miseries, mRking them incal- represents the punishment in.fiicted on the culably blessed. The Fathers generallr, ungodly (Ps. I. 3; Isa. x. 17; lxvi. 15, 16; apply the title of" Sun of Righteousness ' Dan. vii. 9, 10; Joel ii. 30; 1 Cor. iii. 13; to Christ, who is tile Source of Rll justifica- ~Pet.iii. 7, etc.). The LXX. adds," and tion and enlightenment and happiness, and it sLull Lu.rn them." Stubble (see note ou who is called (Jer. xxiii. 6), "The Lord our Oi,w:.1, 18); or, perhaps, cha.ff, as Matt. iii. Ili;;hteousuess." Grow up; mther, gamfiol; I I, 12. Root nor branch. Tl,e ungodly ITKtpT-fi,,..-,, (Septuagint): salietis (Vulgate). lire rcgard1;d as a tree which is given up to "Y P shall leap I" comp. Jer. l. 11). The Le uurned so that noth.i.DJ of it is left. . The word is used of a horse galloping (Hah. i. !lll, IV, 1-G.] TITE BOOK OF MALACHI. 61 --------------------------- ------- 8). Tho lmppiness of lhe righlconij is illus- first nclvent of tl,e LrJrrl, the fornlf•r a~p 11.rs 0